In what may be the shortest revolution on record, Donald Trump’s performance on national security affairs has been a tremendous disappointment to those of his supporters who took seriously his pledge of an America First foreign policy. Seemingly controlled or intimidated by the very Deep State and mainstream media (MSM) he denounced during the campaign, he has looked to be going out of his way to adopt globalist and belligerent policies toward Russia in Europe and especially in Syria, toward China over North Korea, and of course towards Iran.

In recent days, in classic Trump style, he appeared to soften his tone on Korea by suggesting he’d be «honored» to meet with Kim Jong-un. He talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin about possibly getting cooperation in Syria back on track. But most significantly of all, he re-launched his assault on the same media that had at least briefly praised him for his foreign bellicosity, especially for the needless, unjustified, and militarily insignificant strike on Syria’s Shayrat airbase after what almost certainly was a false flag attack by jihad terrorists supported by the U.S. Deep State and our regional allies.

The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington is a posh affair that embodies the cozy, incestuous relationship between the Deep State and the MSM. Even Republican presidents despised by the media, like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, were expected to be «good sports» playing along with the vanity of narcissists who imagine themselves walking, talking embodiments of freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (That vanity is itself part of the problem. Freedom of the press is a right of all citizens, not just self-anointed media professionals. Saying it only pertains to certified journalists would be comparable to limiting the First Amendment’s freedom of religion to clergymen.)

In place of going to the Dinner, Trump instead went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the capital of a working-class Rust Belt state that no Republican had won in decades and without whose votes he would not today be president. Speaking at a campaign-style rally roughly at the same time the Dinner was proceeding without him, Trump and his supporters reveled in their contempt for the MSM:

«As you may know, there’s another big gathering taking place tonight in Washington D.C. Did you hear about it? A large group of Hollywood actors [the crowd boos] and Washington media [more boos] are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now… I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington's swamp… with a much, much larger crowd and much better people… They are gathered together for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner — without the president! Media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are fake news, fake news.

So, just as an example of media, take the totally failing New York Times. Pretty soon they’ll only be on the Internet — the paper’s getting small and smaller. You ever notice? It’s starting to look like a comic book, it’s getting small».

Back in Washington at the Dinner, as though on cue, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association stated:

«We are not fake news. We are not failing news organizations. We are not the enemy of the American people».

Like Richard Nixon’s infamous «I am not a crook», there are some denials that cannot sound like anything but a confirmation of the accusation. Who would stand on a dais to give a nationally televised speech to deny being a fake, a failure, and an enemy of the people except someone who knows that he and his associates are in fact all of those things? And more, that Americans also know they are those things and despise them for it.

The battle lines of America’s cold civil war are becoming clearer all the time. Free speech and freedom of the media are at the heart of the struggle, as witnessed by «Antifa» mobs violently shutting down speakers with which they disagree, with barely a murmur of protest from «journalists» of the sort gathered at the Dinner.

As the old saying goes, one robin does not a spring make. Harrisburg may be a start if it’s followed by action. It’s too soon to say that Trump’s flirtation with the warmongering ways of his predecessors was just a feint to position himself for a counterattack that may now be starting. But perhaps it’s reason to hope.

The views of individual contributors do not
necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

In what may be the shortest revolution on record, Donald Trump’s performance on national security affairs has been a tremendous disappointment to those of his supporters who took seriously his pledge of an America First foreign policy. Seemingly controlled or intimidated by the very Deep State and mainstream media (MSM) he denounced during the campaign, he has looked to be going out of his way to adopt globalist and belligerent policies toward Russia in Europe and especially in Syria, toward China over North Korea, and of course towards Iran.

In recent days, in classic Trump style, he appeared to soften his tone on Korea by suggesting he’d be «honored» to meet with Kim Jong-un. He talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin about possibly getting cooperation in Syria back on track. But most significantly of all, he re-launched his assault on the same media that had at least briefly praised him for his foreign bellicosity, especially for the needless, unjustified, and militarily insignificant strike on Syria’s Shayrat airbase after what almost certainly was a false flag attack by jihad terrorists supported by the U.S. Deep State and our regional allies.

The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington is a posh affair that embodies the cozy, incestuous relationship between the Deep State and the MSM. Even Republican presidents despised by the media, like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, were expected to be «good sports» playing along with the vanity of narcissists who imagine themselves walking, talking embodiments of freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (That vanity is itself part of the problem. Freedom of the press is a right of all citizens, not just self-anointed media professionals. Saying it only pertains to certified journalists would be comparable to limiting the First Amendment’s freedom of religion to clergymen.)

In place of going to the Dinner, Trump instead went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the capital of a working-class Rust Belt state that no Republican had won in decades and without whose votes he would not today be president. Speaking at a campaign-style rally roughly at the same time the Dinner was proceeding without him, Trump and his supporters reveled in their contempt for the MSM:

«As you may know, there’s another big gathering taking place tonight in Washington D.C. Did you hear about it? A large group of Hollywood actors [the crowd boos] and Washington media [more boos] are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capital right now… I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington's swamp… with a much, much larger crowd and much better people… They are gathered together for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner — without the president! Media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are fake news, fake news.

So, just as an example of media, take the totally failing New York Times. Pretty soon they’ll only be on the Internet — the paper’s getting small and smaller. You ever notice? It’s starting to look like a comic book, it’s getting small».

Back in Washington at the Dinner, as though on cue, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association stated:

«We are not fake news. We are not failing news organizations. We are not the enemy of the American people».

Like Richard Nixon’s infamous «I am not a crook», there are some denials that cannot sound like anything but a confirmation of the accusation. Who would stand on a dais to give a nationally televised speech to deny being a fake, a failure, and an enemy of the people except someone who knows that he and his associates are in fact all of those things? And more, that Americans also know they are those things and despise them for it.

The battle lines of America’s cold civil war are becoming clearer all the time. Free speech and freedom of the media are at the heart of the struggle, as witnessed by «Antifa» mobs violently shutting down speakers with which they disagree, with barely a murmur of protest from «journalists» of the sort gathered at the Dinner.

As the old saying goes, one robin does not a spring make. Harrisburg may be a start if it’s followed by action. It’s too soon to say that Trump’s flirtation with the warmongering ways of his predecessors was just a feint to position himself for a counterattack that may now be starting. But perhaps it’s reason to hope.